Wednesday, March 27, 2013

PTs Needed for Research Project on Patients With Arthritis

If
you currently primarily see patients with arthritis in your practice and would
like to be included in a formative research project, contact Anita Bemis-Dougherty, PT, DPT, MAS, APTA department
of clinical practice, by Monday, April 1. You will be asked to complete a 20-minute
phone interview with Westat, a research company, to understand physical
therapists' (PTs) current knowledge, attitudes, and recommendation practices
related to arthritis community-based physical activity/self-management
education (PA/SME) programs, and to
explore communication preferences for learning about these programs.

APTA
is working with the National Association of Chronic Disease Directors (NACDD)
and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to inform a strategy
to increase PT recommendations to PA/SME interventions for patients with
arthritis. To do this, NACDD is working with Westat to develop a marketing
strategy and arthritis educational materials to assist PTs in recommending
evidence-based community arthritis PA/SME interventions to their patients with
arthritis when indicated.

Westat
will conduct the primary research with the following objectives: (1) assess PTs'
awareness of and attitudes toward community-based interventions, (2) identify
messages that motivate PTs to recommend interventions to their patients, (3)
identify preferences about the form of the communications and additional
resources needed, (4) identify how to disseminate messages to PTs, and (5)
develop recommendations for marketing strategy and materials.